The present invention relates to devices for carrying light watercraft such as a canoe or kayak and for carrying camping materials associated with use of a canoe or kayak.
Users of canoes and modern touring kayaks frequently take long trips involving camping overnight in remote areas. Such adventures almost invariably require that a user carry or portage the light watercraft canoe or kayak along with adequate camping materials at least to a launch site some distance from a road, and frequently the users have to portage the watercraft and materials along uneven terrain between waterways. For example a first segment of a journey may be along a lake to a stream feeding into the lake, and a second segment may be along another lake nearby the stream, or upstream, beyond a region of rapids in the stream that the light watercraft cannot navigate. Frequently the distance that must be travelled between the first and second navigable segments is wooded, uneven terrain requiring substantial effort to portage both the watercraft and camping materials. Such portage distances most often range between 0.5 to 3 miles.
A traditional solution to that portage problem has been for one of the camping party to position a central portion of the watercraft such as a center thwart of a canoe over his or her shoulders so that the canoe is inverted and balanced on the shoulders. In that position, the user's head is within the canoe and therefore the user's visibility is severely limited. Typically the user would use at least one hand to balance the canoe in a stable position, while using the other hand for personal balance. It is well known that many modern canoes have center thwarts cut or molded to define a neck slot between flattened shoulder contact sections of the thwart to facilitate such traditional portage. While one party is carrying the watercraft in that manner, another party could carry any camping materials in a traditional back-pack or duffle bag type of arrangement, or if the user is alone, after portaging the canoe, the user could return to carry the materials to the launch site for the next segment of the trip.
Many problems are associated with this traditional solution. In particular, the entire weight of the watercraft is placed on the shoulders of the user causing rapid fatigue of shoulder musculature, and because of limitations on visibility, the user frequently causes the canoe to bang against tree trunks, protruding rocks, etc., which both damages the watercraft and may throw the user off balance. Additionally, because the user must keep one hand on the canoe, it is difficult to maintain balance especially over downhill or uphill slopes and rocky terrain, further adding to a risk of damaging the canoe through inadvertent contact, and even worse, raising a probability of the user stumbling to his or her own injury and hence causing potentially severe damage to a dropped watercraft, especially one with a fiberglass hull.
Many efforts have been made to overcome the problems associated with that traditional portage method for canoes. One proposed solution is a "Canoe Carrier" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,367 issued to Jackson on May 22, 1973. Jackson's canoe carrier includes a frame having shoulder straps secured to upper portions of opposed upright members that are secured to a user's shoulders and a hip belt secured to lower portions of the upright members and to a user's hips. The frame may support a traditional back-pack, and includes attachments on top ends of the upright members for receiving and supporting a center thwart of a canoe. A pair of support arms are pivotally connected to lower ends of the upright members and include attachment straps that secure the pair of support arms to a forward thwart or transverse strut of the canoe. The attachment straps secure the forward thwart in a fixed relationship to the frame on the user's back when the canoe is secured to the frame so that the watercraft cannot pivot about an axis perpendicular to the frame members or user's back.
Jackson's canoe carrier has not obtained popular usage because it gives rise to further problems, even though it has provided more comfort to the user by transferring weight of the watercraft to the frame. In particular, because the canoe is in a fixed, rigid relationship to the user, the user's visibility is severely restrained as he or she walks over uneven terrain. For example, if a user has to walk up an inclined slope, in order to see the slope the user will have to tilt the canoe so its forward portion moves upward. That motion will pull the user's hips forward because the support arms rigidly extend from the forward thwart to lower ends of the frame adjacent the user's hips, thereby jeopardizing the user's balance. Even worse is a situation wherein the user has to go down a substantial slope. In such a situation, a rear end of the canoe extending away from the user's back could contact a raised, or uphill slope behind the user, thereby forcing the canoe to pivot unexpectedly, so that the user would have to bend suddenly forward, and would very likely pitch forward, falling down the slope. A final problem with Jackson confronts the user in extricating her or himself from carrying the canoe without assistance from another person. First the straps securing the rigid support arms to the forward thwart must be disengaged by the user. Next the user must lift the canoe off of the support attachments on the frame and pivot the canoe so one end contacts the ground. Normally in such a motion, the front end is easily observed by the user as it is lowered to contact the ground, and the user then backs out of the canoe while holding it overhead until able to roll it upright and then let it down to the ground. However in such a traditional motion, the Jackson support arms would be in the way of any lowering of the forward end of the canoe. Consequently, a rear end of the canoe would have to be lowered to the ground first, but then the support arms would also be in the way of the user's arms in rolling the canoe over to the ground. Hence, Jackson's forward extending, rigidly affixed support arms severely compromise safe portage of a watercraft, and make unassisted removal of the canoe from the frame exceedingly awkward, if not impossible.
A similar and more recent effort to create a working light watercraft portage device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,457 issued on Nov. 26, 1996 to Nichols, Jr. It shows a pair of pivotable support legs secured to a forward portion of a light watercraft that can be positioned to support the watercraft at an angle above the ground so that a user may get under the canoe to position a carrying yoke such as a center thwart on the user's shoulders. The support legs may then be pivoted into storage positions in the watercraft or they may be secured to a belt to help distribute the weight. While the support legs offer some flexibility in rough terrain to allow the user to move the canoe, they also require permanent fastening fixtures in the watercraft for both mounting and storing the legs, and no provision is made for assisting in moving camping materials. Consequently, the support legs of Nichols, Jr. have not gained wide-spread popularity as they are too complicated, heavy, costly to manufacture and install, and do not solve the most significant problems of watercraft portage, as they require the user to use at least one hand to balance the mounted watercraft during portage over rough terrain. The support legs only assist in mounting and disengaging a watercraft such as a canoe. Moreover, the legs could have no practical application for touring kayaks having hulls that are closed except for a user's cockpit.
Another recent attempt to provide an efficient light watercraft portage device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,246 issued on Aug. 20, 1996 to Lambert. Like Jackson, Lambert also shows a frame secured to a user's back, but the Lambert frame consists of two rectangular frames pivotally connected so that a carrier belt holds the two frame members sufficiently apart when on the user's back to support a central strut of a light watercraft immediately adjacent the user's shoulders. The carrier belt also holds the webbed frame members in a position of a camp chair when deployed on the ground. While the Lambert carrier eliminates the fixed positional problems of Jackson and achieves a weight distribution from the user's shoulders to the frame, Lambert still fails to resolve major problems associated with traditional canoe portage requirements. With Lambert's carrier, the user's head is still projected within the hull of a watercraft such as a canoe giving rise to visibility problems. Those problems are expected to be resolved by the user pivoting the supported canoe with one hand while balancing with the other. Lambert therefore leaves the user with most of the basic problems of traditional portage once the watercraft is mounted; namely, visibility and related balance limitations leading to risks of damage to the watercraft from banging into objects, and risks of loss of balance to the user in rough, uneven terrain resulting in falling and possible injury to the user and severe damage to the watercraft.
Accordingly, it a general object of the present invention to provide a portage system for light watercraft that overcomes the problems of the prior art.
It is a more specific object to provide a portage system for light watercraft that enables a user to use both hands while the watercraft is supported above the user's head while limiting unintended contact between the craft and foreign objects.
It is yet another specific object to provide a portage system for light watercraft that may be used on a variety of watercraft, such as canoes and single and double touring kayaks.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a portage system that may be utilized to carry either a light watercraft, camping material, or both, and to enable rapid disengagement of the camping material from the system to quickly switch to carrying the watercraft alone.
These and other advantages and objects of this invention will become more readily apparent when the following description is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.